Publishers File Suit Against Notorious Pirate Site Anna’s Archive

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) announced a major infringement suit today against the notorious pirate site Anna’s Archive, brought by thirteen publishing companies across the trade, educational, and professional and scientific publishing sectors.

Apress Media, LLC et al. v. Anna’s Archive and Does 1- 10 was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking permanent injunctive relief for the copying and distribution of millions of infringing files, both books and research journal articles. The works in suit include an extraordinary scope of authorship, including bestselling titles and winners of the Nobel Prize, Man Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Newbery Medal, and Caldecott Medal.

Statement from Maria A. Pallante, AAP President and CEO:

“Anna’s Archive is a brazen pirate operation that steals and distributes millions of literary works while outrageously offering access to AI developers in exchange for crypto payments. To fight back, we must use all available tools and believe this action in U.S. court will make a difference. The unfortunate reality is that creators face a level of digital piracy today that is so staggering it is almost unbelievable—it is an affront to the public interest.”

As detailed in the complaint, the operators of Anna’s Archive explicitly describe themselves as “pirates” who “deliberately violate the copyright law in most countries,” boldly threatening “to take all the books in the world.” Anna’s Archive also mirrors the pirate repositories of Library Genesis and Z-Library, sites that are the subject of court orders in several jurisdictions and included in the U.S. Trade Representative’s “Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy.”  The complaint cites evidence, including the defendants’ own outrageous blog posts, indicating that Anna’s Archive has been soliciting substantial cryptocurrency payments from large language model developers and data brokers in exchange for high-speed access to its repository of “data,” comprising stolen works of authorship.

The publishers seek a legal judgment against Anna’s Archive for willful copyright infringement as well as injunctive relief to help stop its ongoing damage. The plaintiffs also ask the court to direct third-party internet registries, domain name registrars, data centers, and hosting and service providers to assist in ceasing hosting services for the various domain names under which the defendants operate.

Key passages from the Complaint:

• Anna’s Archive publicly claims to have given “high-speed access” to its illegal collection of more than 140 million copyrighted texts to companies in China, Russia, and elsewhere, many of them LLMs. One court in the Northern District of California recently found that Meta Platforms torrented the contents of Anna’s Archive for use in developing its LLM model Llama. Seeking to capitalize on this market, Anna’s Archive now directly solicits the AI industry to purchase high-speed access to its collection.

• Pursuant to CPLR § 302(a)(3)(i), Defendants regularly do or solicit business in New York State, engage in a persistent course of conduct in New York State, and derive substantial revenue from services rendered in New York State. For example, Anna’s Archive distributes copyrighted content to New York State residents without authorization, and it further accepts payments from New York residents in exchange for faster downloads of infringing content.

• The scale of Defendants’ infringement is staggering. Anna’s Archive was created with the express goal “to take all the books in the world,” and it continues its illegal conduct in pursuit of this unlawful aim.

• Anna’s Archive launched in July 2022 as the “Pirate Library Mirror” (or “PiLiMi”). As Anna’s Archive explained at the time, its original name derived from the fact that the operators “deliberately violate the copyright law in most countries” (i.e., are “pirates”), “focus primarily on written materials like books” (and thus claim to be a “library”), and were then “strictly a mirror of existing” Notorious Pirate Sites. As part of its first project in October 2022, Anna’s Archive mirrored the contents of Z-Library, which it described as “a popular (and illegal) library” and Library Genesis or “LibGen”, one of the world’s largest Notorious Pirate Sites. Anna’s Archive copied over 10 million files from Z-Library and LibGen.

• Defendants directly profit from their mass infringement business. Anna’s Archive seeks donations through its “Donate” page, and it has solicited “other types of support, such as grants, long-term sponsors, high-risk payment providers, perhaps even (tasteful!) ads.”

• Defendants also solicit “[e]nterprise-level donation[s]” in exchange for “[u]nlimited high-speed access” and other services. In reality, these “donations” are paid memberships, and Anna’s Archive explicitly refers to donations as “memberships” on its FAQ page.

• The Atlantic complaint alleged that Anna’s Archive purported to host “61,344,044 books” and “95,527,824 papers” as of the date of filing on December 29, 2025. That Anna’s Archive has apparently added over 2,000,000 books and 100,000 papers in the short time since the Atlantic complaint was filed speaks to the egregious scale of Defendants’ infringement.

About the Association of American Publishers

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) represents the U.S. publishing industry on matters of law and policy, with a particular focus on the copyright, technology, and freedom of expression issues that make publishing possible. Founded in 1970, AAP regularly organizes and supports litigation that is of existential importance to the greater creative community. AAP’s members include large, small, and specialized publishing houses serving both local and global markets. Together, they inform and inspire the public, one work of authorship at a time.

About the Plaintiffs

Plaintiffs in Apress Media, LLC et al. v. Anna’s Archive and Does 1-10 include Apress Media LLC; Cengage Group; Elsevier Inc.; Hachette Book Group, Inc.; HarperCollins LLC; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; Bedford, Freeman, & Worth Publishing Group, LLC d/b/a Macmillan Learning; Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC; McGraw Hill LLC; Pearson Education, Inc.; Penguin Random House LLC; Simon & Schuster, LLC; Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The plaintiffs, and other AAP member publishers, publish and curate the important, beloved, and award-winning works of many of the world’s most acclaimed authors as well as leading educators and experts in various educational, scholarly, and scientific fields. They are global leaders who partner with brilliant authors to deliver works that educate, inform, and inspire every type of reader. Moreover, these publishers are investing in artificial intelligence tools to improve business practices and reader experiences while maintaining emphasis on human authorship as the bedrock of creative and scholarly endeavor.

Read complaint here.

2025 USTR Notorious Markets List Issued

AAP Applauds the Agency’s Review of Pirate Sites that are Harmful to Publishers and Authors

Washington, DC; March 4, 2026 —The Association of American Publishers today applauded the release of the 2025 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). The Notorious Markets List identifies prominent examples of online and physical markets around the world “in which pirated or counterfeit goods and services reportedly are available or that facilitate, turn a blind eye to, or benefit from substantial piracy and counterfeiting.”

“On behalf of our member publishers we thank the USTR and the interagency team for its continued focus on Intellectual Property rights, and for the critically important work exposing overseas-based online sites and marketplaces that traffic in infringing copies of books and journal articles,” commented Lui Simpson, Executive Vice President for Global Policy at AAP. “This annual report is an indispensable tool in the ongoing battle to protect the rights of publishers and authors.”

The report highlights the necessity of having an effective framework for dealing with enterprise scale piracy and the complex ecosystem—including “domain name registries and registrars, reverse proxy and other anonymization services, hosting providers, caching services, advertisers and advertisement placement networks, payment processors, social media platforms, search engines, and network management infrastructure—which providers of pirated content abuse.”

The report again lists Libgen, Sci-Hub and their related mirror-sites including several of Anna’s Archive’s domains, which host millions of unauthorized copies of books, manuals, journal articles, academic papers, and other works of authorship.  Both the Libgen and Sci-Hub sites are subject to court orders in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The 2025 USTR Notorious Markets report can be found here.

The Association of American Publishers Announces 2026 PROSE Award Winners for Excellence and the R.R. Hawkins Award

Cambridge University Press, Simon and Schuster, and Stanford University Press honored with PROSE Awards for Excellence

Top PROSE Awards Honor, the R.R. Hawkins Award, goes to Cambridge University Press’ Atlantic Cataclysm: Rethinking the Atlantic Slave Trades by David Eltis

The Association of American Publishers (AAP), which is currently celebrating the 50^th Anniversary of the PROSE Awards, has announced its 2026 Area of Excellence winners, recognizing an outstanding scholarly publication in each of the following four categories: Biological & Life Sciences, Humanities, Physical Sciences & Mathematics, and Social Sciences. 

AAP also announced that the program’s top prize, the prestigious R.R. Hawkins Award, has been awarded to Cambridge University Press’ Atlantic Cataclysm: Rethinking the Atlantic Slave Tradesby David Eltis.

“For fifty years, the PROSE Awards have honored the publishers who deliver the very best in professional and scholarly publishing, and I am delighted to say that the houses behind this year’s Excellence Awards winners have continued that tradition, with stellar works representing all four of the PROSE Categories,” Commented Syreeta Swann, Chief Operating Officer, Association of American Publishers. “Even as we congratulate this year’s exceptional group of honorees, we also applaud each and every PROSE award-winning publishing house that has delivered ground-breaking works over the past half-century. Bravo to all!”

R.R. Hawkins Awards Winner

“Receiving the prestigious R.R. Hawkins Award at this year’s PROSE Awards is a real honour for Cambridge and an extraordinary achievement for David Eltis, whose book Atlantic Cataclysm: Rethinking the Atlantic Slave Trades is rightly recognised for its outstanding contribution to academic scholarship,” commented Mandy Hill, Managing Director, Cambridge University Press. “This award also reflects the shared commitment and close partnership that underpin exceptional publishing. David’s extraordinary scholarship, supported by the dedication and expertise of our publishing team, have enabled us to bring this important piece of work to readers around the world. I’m delighted that the judges have recognised the impact and quality of this work, and I would like to extend my congratulations to all of the winners and finalists.”

“This year’s top honoree, Atlantic Cataclysm: Rethinking the Atlantic Slave Trades, offers a carefully researched, data-driven analysis that dramatically challenges long-held assumptions of the Atlantic slave trade and its aftermath, in the process creating a new understanding of this pivotal period in world history,” commented PROSE Chief Judge Nigel Fletcher-Jones, PhD. “The scholarship and analysis in this work stand out in an already impressive crowd of competitors, and we congratulate Cambridge University Press for producing a work that we believe will swiftly take its place as a touchstone in its field.”

2026 PROSE Excellence Winners are as follows:

R.R Hawkins Award Winner & PROSE Award for Excellence in The Humanities

• Atlantic Cataclysm: Rethinking the Atlantic Slave Trades by David Eltis, Cambridge University Press

PROSE Award for Excellence in Biological & Life Sciences

• Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery by Mallary Tenore Tarpley, Simon and Schuster

PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences 

• The Worst Trickster Story Ever Told: Native America, the Supreme Court, and the U.S. Constitution by Keith Richotte, Jr., Stanford University Press

PROSE Award for Excellence in Physical Sciences & Mathematics

• Decoherence and Quantum Darwinism: From Quantum Foundations to Classical Reality by Wojciech Hubert Zurek, Cambridge University Press

About the PROSE Awards

Since 1976, the AAP’s annual PROSE Awards have recognized publishers who produce books, journals, and digital products of extraordinary merit that make a significant contribution to a field of study. 

During the 2026 PROSE Awards cycle, a prestigious panel of PROSE Awards Judges selected 101 finalists and 37 category winners. Of the 37 exceptional category winners, today’s PROSE Award for Excellence Winners and R.R. Hawkins Award Winner illustrate the highest standards of scholarly publishing, contributing innovative research and impactful scholarship to their respective areas of study.

More information about the 2026 PROSE Awards can be found here.

The Association of American Publishers Announces Finalists and Category Winners for 50th Annual PROSE Awards

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) unveiled the Finalists and Category Winners for the 50th annual PROSE Awards, honoring professional and scholarly works published in 2025. The PROSE Awards, first presented in 1976, recognize professional and scholarly publishers that have made significant advancements in their respective fields of study each year as judged by a multidisciplinary panel of experts.

“This year we are proud to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the PROSE Awards and delighted to announce that the 2026 finalists and category winners include a tremendously impressive selection of scholarly authorship,” commented Syreeta Swann, Chief Operating Officer for the Association of American Publishers. “We send our congratulations to all of this year’s honorees and look forward to the announcement of the 2026 PROSE Awards for 

Excellence winners, as well as the top prize, the R.R. Hawkins Award in the weeks ahead.”

The Category Winners will now be eligible for the next level of PROSE honors – the Awards for Excellence, which will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Awards for Excellence comprise the following:

• The 2026 PROSE Award for Excellence in Biological and Life Sciences
• The 2026 PROSE Award for Excellence in Humanities
• The 2026 PROSE Award for Excellence in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
• The 2026 PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences

The prestigious R.R. Hawkins Award, the PROSE Award’s highest honor, will be presented to one of the four Excellence winners.

The full list of 2026 Finalists and Category Award winners can be found here.

AAP December 2025 StatShot Report: Overall Publishing Industry Up 9.4% for Month of December, and Up 1.1% Year-To-Date

Trade (Consumer Book) Revenues Up 14.2% for Month of December, and Down 0.5% Year-to-Date

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for December 2025, reflecting reported revenue for Trade (Consumer Books), Religious Presses, and Professional Publishing.

Total revenue across all categories for December 2025 was up 9.4% as compared to December 2024, coming in at $1 billion. Year-to-date revenues were up 1.1%, at $14.6 billion for the year.

Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues

December 

Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were up 14.2% in December at $830.4 million. In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of December, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 13.5%, coming in at $307.6 million; Paperbacks were up 27.5%, with $296.3 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 61.6% to $3.9 million; and Special Bindings were up 13.8%, with $21.8 million in revenue. 

eBook revenues were down 2.8% at $78.7 million for the month, and revenues from the Digital Audio format were down 0.8% for December, coming in at $92 million in revenue. Physical Audio revenues were up 11.3%, coming in at $500 thousand.

Year-to-date

Year-to-date Trade revenues were down 0.5% at $9.8 billion for the year. Hardback revenues were up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis, coming in at $3.7 billion; Paperbacks were down 3.4%, with $3.3 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 29.2% to $84.9 million; and Special Bindings were up 0.3%, with $232.5 million in revenue.

eBook revenues were down 0.3% compared to 2024, for a total of $1 billion. The Digital Audio format was up 2.1%, coming in at $1 billion in revenue. Physical Audio revenues were down 31.2%, coming in at $6.1 million.

Religious Presses

December  

Religious press revenues were up 16.8% in December, coming in at $78.4 million. Hardback revenues were up 18.7% to $46.6 million, while Paperback revenues were up 8.5% to $14.7 million. eBook revenues were up 4.7%, coming in at $3.6 million.

Year-to-date

On a year-to-date basis, religious press revenues were up 2.9%, at $926.4 million. Hardback revenues were up 2.9% at $577.5 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were down 4% to $158.4 million, and eBook revenues were down 0.3% at $49.9 million.

Professional Books

Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were up 13.5% for the month, coming in at $42.5 million. Year-to-date, Professional Books’ revenues were $433 million, down 6.5% as compared to 2024.

AAP’s StatShot

AAP StatShot reports the monthly and yearly net revenue of publishing houses from U.S. sales to bookstores, wholesalers, direct to consumer, online retailers, and other channels. StatShot draws revenue data from approximately 1,300 publishers, although participation may fluctuate slightly from report to report.

StatShot reports are designed to give ongoing revenue snapshots across publishing sectors using the best data currently available. The reports reflect participants’ most recent reported revenue for current and previous periods, enabling readers to compare revenue on both a month-to-month and year-to-year basis within a given StatShot report.

Monthly and yearly StatShot reports may not align completely across reporting periods, because: a) The pool of StatShot participants may fluctuate from report to report; and b) Like any business, it is common accounting practice for publishing houses to update and restate their previously reported revenue data. If, for example, a business learns that its revenues were greater in a given year than its reports first indicated, it will restate the revenues in subsequent reports to AAP, permitting AAP in turn to report information that is more accurate than previously reported.

Publishers Respond to Google’s Opposition in Class Action Infringement Suit

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today announced that Cengage Group and Hachette Book Group have responded in court to Google’s January 29th opposition to their motion to intervene in the case In re In Re Google Generative AI Copyright Litigation.  As articulated in their January 15^th motion to the court, Cengage Group and Hachette Book Group would serve as representatives for all publishers whose rights have similarly been infringed by Google.

Today’s reply states that Google’s opposition misrepresents the clear legal interests of publishers in this matter and misstates the law on timeliness of the motion to intervene. As hundreds of publishing houses would become Class members if the Court grants the class certification put forth by the original plaintiffs—which the AAP and its members support—it is important and necessary for publishers to step up to become directly involved and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with authors in the fight to protect two centuries of fundamental copyright law.

“The decisions of some AI developers to trample the rights of authors and publishers while raking in untold profits continues to shock the conscience,” states Maria A. Pallante, AAP President and CEO. “In this infringement lawsuit against one of the largest developers in the world, every creator, current and future, stands to benefit from the expertise and evidence that publishers can provide.”

As stated in today’s response, the authors who initiated this suit welcome the participation of publishers. “Proposed Interventors . . . [would] ensure the publishing industry’s discrete interests are fairly treated in class litigation where both authors and publishers’ rights are at stake,” the response states. “[A] class without publisher representatives risks arguments unmade and necessary evidence missing.” 

The motions and underlying case, which alleges infringement of millions of works to train the AI model “Gemini,” are pending before the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.   

About Cengage Group    

Cengage Group is a global edtech company with over 100 years of experience supporting learners. Their four operating units—Higher Education, School, Work and English Language Learning—serve millions of students from middle school to graduate school and workforce skills training in over 125 countries.  

Cengage empowers student choice through trusted content, AI-driven insights, and scalable digital platforms that connect education to employment, ensuring learners gain career-ready skills and achieve tangible outcomes.

About Hachette Book Group

Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a leading U.S. general interest book publisher made up of dozens of esteemed imprints within the publishing groups Basic Books Group; Grand Central Publishing Group; Hachette Audio; Little, Brown and Company; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Orbit; Workman Publishing; and Running Press Group. HBG also provides custom distribution, fulfillment, and sales services to several publishing companies.  

HBG’s books and authors have received the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Caldecott Medal, Newbery Medal, Booker Prize, Nobel Prize, James Beard Award, and other major honors.   

About the Association of American Publishers

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) represents the U.S. publishing industry on matters of law and policy, with a particular focus on the copyright, technology, and freedom of expression issues that make publishing possible. Founded in 1970, AAP regularly organizes and supports litigation that is of existential importance to the greater creative community.  AAP’s members include large, small, and specialized publishing houses serving both local and global markets. Together, they inform and inspire the public, one work of authorship at a time.

Read the reply here.

Tyrrell Mahoney, President of Chronicle Books, Elected Chair, AAP Board of Directors

The Association of American Publishers announced today that its Directors have elected Tyrrell Mahoney, President of Chronicle Books, as Chair of the Board for the 2026-2027 term. Ms. Mahoney has served on the AAP Board since 2019, most recently as Vice Chair. Chronicle Books is an independent publishing house headquartered in San Francisco.

The Board also elected Dr. James Milne, President, ACS Publications, to the position of Vice Chair, and Youngsuk ‘YS’ Chi, Chairman of Elsevier and Director of Corporate Affairs for the RELX Group, as Treasurer. Outgoing Board Chair Brian Murray, who is President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers, will remain an officer in the position of Immediate Past Chair.

“Tyrrell Mahoney has been a knowledgeable and consensus-driven member of the Board for seven years, and an especially important voice for independent houses,” commented Maria A. Pallante, President and CEO, AAP. “There is no question that she assumes the role of Chair at a time of tremendous challenge and change for the industry, and we are thrilled to have her at the helm.”

“We also recognize Brian Murray for his tremendous service to this organization,” added Ms. Pallante. “In completing his second term as Chair since 2008, he has been a leader among leaders for the AAP community.”

“I am honored to step into the role of Chair and work alongside the exceptional AAP team at this pivotal time for our industry,” said Ms. Mahoney. “Maintaining the independence and vitality of publishing in the U.S. has always been at the heart of the AAP’s mission, and this work is now more important than ever. I look forward to collaborating with the entire organization on the AAP’s vital work of preserving copyright protections, safeguarding freedom of expression, addressing the challenges of AI technologies, and upholding publishing’s essential role in our culture.”

About Tyrrell Mahoney

Tyrrell Mahoney has served as President of Chronicle Books since January 2017. She first joined the company in 1996, holding several executive management and sales positions. Tyrrell is a graduate of Boston University with a BA in English. She is a long-time resident of San Francisco.

About AAP

AAP | The Association of American Publishers represents the leading book, journal, and education publishers in the United States on matters of law and policy, advocating for outcomes that incentivize and protect works of authorship and the creative, intellectual, and financial investments that make them possible. As essential participants in local markets and the global economy, our members invest in and inspire the exchange of ideas, transforming the world we live in one word at a time. Find us online at www.publishers.org or on Twitter and Instagram at @AmericanPublish.

AAP November 2025 StatShot Report: Overall Publishing Industry Up 1.9% for Month of November, and Up 0.5% Year-To-Date

Trade (Consumer Book) Revenues Up 3.1% for Month of November, and Down 1.7% Year-to-Date

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for November 2025, reflecting reported revenue for Trade (Consumer Books), Religious Presses, and Professional Publishing.

Total revenue across all categories for November 2025 was up 1.9% as compared to November 2024, coming in at $1.2 billion. Year-to-date revenues were up 0.5%, at $13.6 billion for the first eleven months of the year.

Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues

November 

Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were up 3.1% in November at $972 million. In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of November, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 7.3%, coming in at $422.7 million; Paperbacks were down 1.9%, with $294.5 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 66.5% to $3.9 million; and Special Bindings were up 9%, with $27.7 million in revenue. 

eBook revenues were up 2.1% at $86.9 million for the month, and revenues from the Digital Audio format were up 15.8% for November, coming in at $107.6 million in revenue. Physical Audio revenues were down 41.9%, coming in at $500 thousand.

Year-to-date

Year-to-date Trade revenues were down 1.7% at $8.9 billion for the first eleven months of the year. Hardback revenues were up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis, coming in at $3.4 billion; Paperbacks were down 5.6%, with $2.9 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 26.2% to $81 million; and Special Bindings were down 0.9%, with $210.6 million in revenue.

eBook revenues were flat as compared to the first eleven months of 2024, for a total of $963.7 million. The Digital Audio format was up 2.4%, coming in at $995.3 million in revenue. Physical Audio revenues were down 33.7%, coming in at $5.5 million.

Religious Presses

November  

Religious press revenues were up 7.5% in November, coming in at $106.9 million. Hardback revenues were up 17% to $75.3 million in revenue, while Paperback revenues were down 7.5% to $14.1 million. eBook revenues were up 15.1%, coming in at $4.8 million.

Year-to-date

On a year-to-date basis, religious press revenues were up 1.7%, at $848 million. Hardback revenues were up 1.7% at $530.9 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were down 5.1% to $143.7 million, and eBook revenues were down 0.7% at $46.3 million.

Professional Books

Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were flat during the month, coming in at $37.5 million. Year-to-date, Professional Books’ revenues were $390.5 million, down 8.3% as compared to the first eleven months of 2024.

AAP’s StatShot

AAP StatShot reports the monthly and yearly net revenue of publishing houses from U.S. sales to bookstores, wholesalers, direct to consumer, online retailers, and other channels. StatShot draws revenue data from approximately 1,300 publishers, although participation may fluctuate slightly from report to report.

StatShot reports are designed to give ongoing revenue snapshots across publishing sectors using the best data currently available. The reports reflect participants’ most recent reported revenue for current and previous periods, enabling readers to compare revenue on both a month-to-month and year-to-year basis within a given StatShot report.

Monthly and yearly StatShot reports may not align completely across reporting periods, because: a) The pool of StatShot participants may fluctuate from report to report; and b) Like any business, it is common accounting practice for publishing houses to update and restate their previously reported revenue data. If, for example, a business learns that its revenues were greater in a given year than its reports first indicated, it will restate the revenues in subsequent reports to AAP, permitting AAP in turn to report information that is more accurate than previously reported.

Publishers Move to Intervene in Class Action Suit Against Google for Generative AI Product “Gemini”

Direct Participation Would Support Individual Plaintiffs and Bolster Legal Case

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) announced today that two of its member companies, Cengage Group and Hachette Book Group, have moved to intervene as class representatives for publishers in the case In Re Google Generative AI Copyright Litigation, a consolidated class action suit first filed in 2023 by a group of illustrators and writers.

The pending suit, which alleges willful copyright infringement claims against Google for copying millions of books to build and train its commercial, generative AI product “Gemini,” is currently before Judge Eumi K. Lee in the United States District Court, Northern District of California.  

Cengage Group and Hachette Book Group seek to represent all publishers whose rights have similarly been infringed by Google. They would provide a level of expertise and evidence that is of utmost importance in the continuing fight to hold AI companies accountable under the Copyright Act. The publishers’ complaint identifies ten representative works that Google copied to build and train Gemini without permission, including Principles of Economics by M. Gregory Mankiw, Innocent by Scott Turow, and The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.

The publishers have moved to intervene now given recent efforts by the individual plaintiffs to certify a class that includes publishers as copyright owners of many works in suit, and Google’s objection to that effort on various grounds, including purported intra-class complexities. Direct participation by publishers would help address these and other issues so that the case can move forward, further underscoring that publishers are united with authors in this litigation. 

Statement from Maria A. Pallante, AAP President and CEO:

“We thank Cengage Group and Hachette Book Group for their leadership today, as the outcome of this case could have far-reaching consequences for the legal rights, remedies, and livelihoods of authors and publishers. It is no secret that Google and other tech companies have copied books with impunity to fuel their large language AI products. Yet they continue to assert sweeping arguments that would exempt them entirely from the basic rules of permission and accountability that have governed content-intensive technology markets for decades.

“Through today’s action, AAP and its members aim to support the creators suing Google. We believe our participation will bolster the case, especially because publishers are uniquely positioned to address many of the legal, factual, and evidentiary questions before the Court. 

“It is essential to remember that the millions of works at issue in this lawsuit did not spring out of thin air but were conceived, created, developed, perfected, and financed by a creative sector that is dedicated to public progress. From rich works of fiction and nonfiction to high-quality learning materials, we take seriously our mission to inform, inspire, entertain, and educate people of all ages every day, through a variety of formats and delivery models.

“It is understandable that technology companies may want or need creative works to build safe, useful, and compelling AI systems, but this realization should point to a licensing conversation, not a rationalization. Let’s move past these early, free-for-all days of AI development, and get back to the symbiotic partnerships that have always been a hallmark of copyright law.”

About Cengage Group    

Cengage Group is a global edtech company with over 100 years of experience supporting learners. Their four operating units—Higher Education, School, Work and English Language Learning—serve millions of students from middle school to graduate school and workforce skills training in over 125 countries.  

Cengage empowers student choice through trusted content, AI-driven insights, and scalable digital platforms that connect education to employment, ensuring learners gain career-ready skills and achieve tangible outcomes.

About Hachette Book Group

Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a leading U.S. general interest book publisher made up of dozens of esteemed imprints within the publishing groups Basic Books Group; Grand Central Publishing Group; Hachette Audio; Little, Brown and Company; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Orbit; Workman Publishing; and Running Press Group. HBG also provides custom distribution, fulfillment, and sales services to several publishing companies.  

HBG’s books and authors have received the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Caldecott Medal, Newbery Medal, Booker Prize, Nobel Prize, James Beard Award, and other major honors.   

About the Association of American Publishers

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) represents the U.S. publishing industry on matters of law and policy, with a particular focus on the copyright, technology, and freedom of expression issues that make publishing possible. Founded in 1970, AAP regularly organizes and supports litigation that is of existential importance to the greater creative community.  AAP’s members include large, small, and specialized publishing houses serving both local and global markets. Together, they inform and inspire the public, one work of authorship at a time.

Read Motion here.

Read Complaint here.

AAP October 2025 StatShot Report: Overall Publishing Industry Up 6.7% for Month of October, and Up 0.4% Year-To-Date

Trade (Consumer Book) Revenues Up 3.5% for Month of October, and Down 2.3% Year-to-Date

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for October 2025, reflecting reported revenue for Trade (Consumer Books), Religious Presses, and Professional Publishing.

Total revenue across all categories for October 2025 was up 6.7% as compared to October 2024, coming in at $1.5 billion. Year-to-date revenues were up 0.4%, at $12.4 billion for the first ten months of the year.

Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues

October 

Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were up 3.5% in October at $1.1 billion. In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of October, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 4.5%, coming in at $521.3 million; Paperbacks were up 1.5%, with $350.6 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 22.7% to $7.9 million; and Special Bindings were down 4.9%, with $26.1 million in revenue. 

eBook revenues were up 1.9% at $88.3 million for the month, and revenues from the Digital Audio format were up 7.3% for October, coming in at $92.6 million in revenue. Physical Audio revenues were down 21.1%, coming in at $700 thousand.

Year-to-date

Year-to-date Trade revenues were down 2.3% at $8 billion for the first ten months of the year. Hardback revenues were up 0.7% on a year-over-year basis, coming in at $3 billion; Paperbacks were down 6%, with $2.7 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 21.4% to $77.1 million; and Special Bindings were down 2.3%, with $182.9 million in revenue.

eBook revenues were down 0.2%, as compared to the first ten months of 2024, for a total of $876.8 million. The Digital Audio format was up 1%, coming in at $887.7 million in revenue. Physical Audio revenues were down 32.7%, coming in at $5 million.

Religious Presses

October 

Religious press revenues were up 10.6% in October, coming in at $102.4 million. Hardback revenues were up 8.6% to $66.8 million in revenue, while Paperback revenues were down 0.1% to $15.6 million. eBook revenues were up 14.3%, coming in at $4.4 million.

Year-to-date

On a year-to-date basis, religious press revenues were up 1.0%, at $741.1 million. Hardback revenues were down 0.4% at $455.7 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were down 4.9% to $129.6 million, and eBook revenues were down 2.2% at $41.5 million.

Professional Books

Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were flat during the month, coming in at $38.2 million. Year-to-date, Professional Books’ revenues were $352.9 million, down 9.1% as compared to the first ten months of 2024.

AAP’s StatShot

AAP StatShot reports the monthly and yearly net revenue of publishing houses from U.S. sales to bookstores, wholesalers, direct to consumer, online retailers, and other channels. StatShot draws revenue data from approximately 1,300 publishers, although participation may fluctuate slightly from report to report.

StatShot reports are designed to give ongoing revenue snapshots across publishing sectors using the best data currently available. The reports reflect participants’ most recent reported revenue for current and previous periods, enabling readers to compare revenue on both a month-to-month and year-to-year basis within a given StatShot report.

Monthly and yearly StatShot reports may not align completely across reporting periods, because: a) The pool of StatShot participants may fluctuate from report to report; and b) Like any business, it is common accounting practice for publishing houses to update and restate their previously reported revenue data. If, for example, a business learns that its revenues were greater in a given year than its reports first indicated, it will restate the revenues in subsequent reports to AAP, permitting AAP in turn to report information that is more accurate than previously reported.